Heavy rains lash Noida and Ghaziabad, create chaos on major roads

Traffic was badly affected due to waterlogging in several parts of Ghaziabad and Noida as the two cities witnessed heavy rainfall on Saturday morning

Traffic was badly affected due to waterlogging in several parts of Ghaziabad and Noida as the two cities witnessed heavy rainfall on Saturday morning.

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In Ghaziabad, GT Road, NH-9, Delhi-Meerut Road and some internal roads of the city witnessed heavy traffic jams on Saturday. In neighbouring Noida, the vehicular movement was mainly affected at Labour Chowk, Sector 62 underpass, Kulesara road and the underpass towards Indirapuram in Ghaziabad due to waterlogging especially during the morning hours.

Nitin Ashu, resident of Pratap Vihar in Ghaziabad, had to spend about three hours to reach district headquarters that otherwise would have taken 15 minutes on a normal day.

“Since morning, the city witnessed heavy waterlogging and jams ensued as a result. First I went to Delhi-Meerut Expressway, but it had a long queue of vehicles. I returned to take Gaushala underpass that was completely submerged in water. Then I took GT Road, but didn’t get any relief from jam,” Ashu said.

Kamiya Arora, a resident of Crossings Republik, had to meet the similar fate. “The worst affected stretch on the DME was at Lal Kuan which consumed almost two hours to cross over. Later, I somehow took a service lane towards GT Road to reach Kavi Nagar,” Arora said.

Residents said that localities like Indirapuram, Vaishali, Vasundhara, and Shalimar Garden suffered heavy waterlogging.

Vaishali resident BK Pandey said that his woes continued since he got up on Saturday morning. “I had to wade through knee-deep water to fetch milk. A rather worse situation prevailed in Indirapuram that remained waterlogged almost throughout the day,” Pandey added.

The women commuters going to their relatives’ places to celebrate Rakshabandhan on Sunday were hit hard.

“I started for my brother’s house in Meerut, and it took me about two hours to cross Ghaziabad as there were jams everywhere. The GT Road was jam packed with long queues of vehicles. Several stretches on GT Road were waterlogged that led to the traffic mess,” said Bhawna Yadav, a resident of Sahibabad.

According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Ghaziabad recorded an average rainfall of 24mm on Saturday. The automatic weather monitoring station at CDO Ghaziabad did not fetch records for morning, however, weather analysts believe the rainfall to be under heavy category. On the other hand, Noida recorded 79.5mm rainfall till Saturday 8.30am, while on average (between Friday 5.30pm to Saturday 5.30pm), the city recorded 25mm rainfall.

The traffic police said that they toiled hard throughout the day to manage the traffic on roads. “Besides traffic police personnel, we also roped in police post in-charges to help clear the traffic jams. Some of the major roads have issues of waterlogging which resulted in long jams,” said Ramanand Kushwaha, superintendent of police (traffic), Ghaziabad.

The precarious situation led top officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation to conduct inspections in different areas. They said that the city has 525 small and big drains that were cleaned before the monsoon, but some of them developed fresh garbage deposits.

“We employed several teams to clear out garbage from drains. The next two days will be crucial and we have asked officials concerned to ensure that there is no waterlogging in the city,” said MS Tanwar, municipal commissioner.

In Noida, traffic police officials said that heavy rainfall led to waterlogging at several underpasses that caused traffic snarls.

“Heavy rainfall led to waterlogged underpasses at sectors 60 and 72, causing traffic jams especially in the morning hours. The similar situation prevailed at Labour Chowk and Kulesara. However, at DND cut and Mahamaya Flyover, the traffic was normal as the water was pumped out before 8am,” said an official from the traffic police department.

Officials of the Noida authority said that the workers were rushed to clear the stretches. “As the rainfall was heavy, there were some instances of waterlogging, but our workers were rushed to affected areas, including Labour Chowk, sectors 37, 60 and City Centre underpasses. The water was removed from roads by around 12 noon,” said an authority official, requesting anonymity.

Meanwhile, the Ghaziabad municipal commissioner on Saturday night issued a roster in which three officers each were deputed for 13 worst affected waterlogged areas. They have been deputed for 24 hours and will operate in shifts. The order also stated that one senior officer will be deputed for each of the five zones of the city.

The 13 worst affected areas include New Bus Adda to Patel Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, Nehru Nagar, Navyug Market, Lohiya Nagar, Seemant Vihar (Kaushambi), Brij Vihar, Mohan Nagar, Apsara Border, Rajendra Nagar, Pandav Nagar, Karpuripuram and Govindpuram, among others.

Meanwhile, the weather analysts said that there are chances of light to moderate rainfall on Sunday.

“Region will continue receiving rainfall for another two days till August 23. There are chances of moderate rainfall on Sunday which will drop towards Monday to light rainfall. After that, the region may see a temporary break monsoon condition for a few days,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, meteorology and climate change, Skymet.